The goals of the proposed research are (1) to develop a new observational methodology for studying sibling and parent-child relationships and their mutual influence in earl. adolescence, (2) to provide a comparison with previously used methods, and (3) to address questions concerning longitudinal stability and change in patterns of family relationships and their links with children's self concept. A two-phase study is planned, with phase one an intensive naturalistic study of 10 families, and phase two a study focusing on a sample of 43 families previously studied in early childhood. Naturalistic observations, videotaped mealtime observations and interviews with family members will be obtained. Family relational processes will be studied at a variety of levels, including discourse analysis. The approach and lessons learned from it will form the basis of a proposal for a large-scale study of family relationships in early adolescence.